Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Impatiens walleriana cultivar Balfiespray.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Double Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens walleriana, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Balfiesprayxe2x80x99.
The new Double Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Elburn, Ill. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Double Impatiens cultivars with fully double flowers, freely branching growth habit and attractive flower and foliage coloration.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in February, 2000, of a proprietary Impatiens walleriana selection identified as code number 3306c-1, not patented, as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary Impatiens walleriana selection identified as code number 10997, not patented, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar Balfiespray was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Elburn, Ill.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken at Elburn, Ill. since April, 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Balfiesprayxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Balfiesprayxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Double Impatiens cultivar:
1. Upright, outwardly spreading and mounded plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit.
3. Dark green-colored leaves.
4. Red purple and light pink bi-colored flowers that are fully double and positioned above and beyond the foliage.
Plants of the new Impatiens differ primarily from plants of the parent selections in flower color.
The new Impatiens can be compared to the Impatiens walleriana cultivar Sparkler Rose, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,603. However, in side-by-side comparisons conducted in West Chicago, Ill., plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens were more compact than plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose.
2. Plants of the new Impatiens were more freely flowering than plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose.
3. Plants of the new Impatiens and the cultivar Sparkler Rose differed slightly in flower color.